


When the Boyfriend's Away...

by AwayLaughing



Category: Naruto
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Dorks in Love, Kittens, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-01
Updated: 2016-10-01
Packaged: 2018-08-18 23:47:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8180452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwayLaughing/pseuds/AwayLaughing
Summary: ...the kittens will play.OrNeji comes home to an unexpectedly fluffy set of surprises. Shikamaru is insultingly unrepentant.





	

“What is that?” Neji asked, stopping in the entrance into the living room from the genkan like an elephant had just put its foot down in front of him.

“It’s a cat,” Shikamaru said, not looking up from where he was feeding the – very very small – creature. Then he looked around, eyes lighting on something on the other side of his legs. “Well, cats.”

“Why?” Neji heard himself saying, and then just knew he’d left himself open for some sort of jab.

“Why cats?” Shikamaru took his chance, managing to sound bemused instead of smug.

“No, why are they here?” They didn’t even look old enough to be away from their mother yet. “Put them back where you found them.”

“Mom, I didn’t know you were practising your Neji-henge,” he said. “And I can’t. They were in a box, and they’re too young to survive without their mother.”

Of course. Neji had noticed the Naras had a general proclivity for abandoned animals, wild and domestic alike. He couldn’t have told Shikamaru to leave two kittens to die in a box than he could have told him to leave a friend dangling off a cliff. And even if he had, Shikamaru would have ignored him entirely.

“I’m having a shower,” Neji said finally.

“Have fun,” was the dismissive reply. Neji had a sinking feeling about his continued healthy sex life.

* * *

When Neji got out of the shower and dressed again, the kittens were missing and Shikamaru was laying across the couch, an obviously abandoned report on his stomach.

“I assume the interlopers are asleep?” he asked and Shikamaru peered up at him.

“If you don’t like them that much I’ll give them away once they’re self sufficient. Should only be a week or two now anyway.”

Were Shikamaru a lesser man, he’d have said that with puppy eyes and a small pout and Neji would have rolled his eyes. Instead, Shikamaru just said it with a simple tone that made Neji feel like an asshole. “I don’t not like the cats,” Neji said, earning an eyebrow from his boyfriend, who he ignored because he was being nice and wouldn’t let Shikamaru bring this whole thing down. “I don’t know them. I was just surprised.”

“And you don’t like surprises,” Shikamaru said, smiling a little sheepishly. “I really didn’t plan on keeping them, I found them half in the river and didn’t realize how young they were until I warmed them up.”

“When was this?” Neji asked, taking a spot at Shikamaru’s feet, who immediately shifted back into place, now on his lap.

“Eight days ago,” Shikamaru said and Neji eyed him. Eight days was plenty of time to bond with a tiny big eyed fuzzball. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?” Neji asked.

“Like you think I’m a softie who can’t let go.”

“I don’t think that,” Neji said, “I think you’re a giant softie and your entire clan has a bizarre love of cute things given most of you kill people for a living.” As he spoke, he dragged a finger down Shikamaru’s foot, earning a startled jerk.

“You ass – I will kick you in the face,” he said, “and it’s not bizarre, we just don’t perform ritual sacrifice of our babies unlike some clans.”

“Nonsense,” Neji said, “we had to agree to stop doing that to move into Konoha.”

He took advantage of Shikamaru’s distraction from that to tickle his foot again. “Fuck!” Shikamaru yelled and they both stilled at a rather annoyed squeak.

A moment later the less fuzzy kitten clawed her way up and stared at them through tiny eyes. A moment later her sister joined her.

“What?” Shikamaru asked finally, and the kittens responded by crawling into his lap. One stretched out across the seam of his legs, the other flopped over her sister, head smooshed into the couch. “So much for lunch, then.”

* * *

If Neji had had any delusions that the cats were going away, they would have evaporated when a name for one of them slipped out. The two kittens were both pure white, but they were otherwise easy to tell apart. Ones eyes were staring to show signs of one staying blue, the other kitten looked permanently like someone had gotten her wet and she’d dried in spikes.

What was worse was the fact he was the one to cave, after only three days.

“Fuyu?” Shikamaru looked up from where he was chopping vegetables. Neji was on the couch, the small kitten draped over his shoulder, legs splayed across his chest. “A little obvious, isn’t it?”

“Like you weren’t thinking about it,” Neji said, rubbing just two fingers down the tiny back. For such a small thing, she had an impressive purr already, and it was all Neji could hear from that ear.

“It does fit,” Shikamaru agreed. “Good thing I named the other one, I guess.”

“Wait – you did?”

“Just internally,” Shikamaru said, “it was hard not to say it though.”

Neji chuckled gently. “What did you call her?”

“Katahara.”

Neji snorted so hard the kitten jumped a foot in the air and then sat herself back down on his chest, meowing indignantly. A couple of chin scratches calmed her down though, and she rearranged herself on his breastbone before he dared speak. “At least the name I gave mine isn’t a pun!”

“Oh, she’s yours now?”

“Well the other one likes you better, so obviously.”

**Author's Note:**

> taken off my tumblr from a while ago, this is the (start of the) story of how Shikamaru ended up with 5 cats and how Neji got suckered into not objecting.


End file.
